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Green marketing is dead as a doornail, writes Joel Makower, and it's time CSR advocates accepted that fact. Consumers simply don't care enough about eco-products to pay a premium for them, he argues, so companies should stop pushing individual green-product lines and start focusing on systemic, institutional change. "There's plenty of hard work to do on the journey from here to sustainability. Dilly-dallying with green-marketing come-ons is a distraction," Makower adds.

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Microsoft said it has shifted millions of Hotmail accounts to the Outlook.com e-mail service. The transition was completed in six weeks and included informing customers of the changes, keeping users' account specifications intact and enhancing mailboxes. Outlook.com, released in February, has more than 400 million accounts, compared with Hotmail's 300 million-plus active accounts, according to Microsoft.

Roughly one-quarter of consumers have bought eco-products just to flaunt their environmental sensitivity, according to a Mintel study, suggesting that peer pressure is a powerful driver of green consumerism. That makes social media a particularly powerful driver of eco-product sales, with about one in seven younger shoppers saying they've bought green products based solely on social media recommendations.

If you're looking for inexpensive ways to green your life -- and perhaps your home -- then Hilary Davis, a California real estate agent, green-products distributor and Certified Green Building Professional, has some ideas. She discusses composters, twist sponge cloths, air purifiers and more. "Most of the time," she says, "it is just slightly changing what you are already doing."